From March 25-28, 2015, NSVI conducted its 7th mission to Haiti.Thanks to the opening of the expanded runway at Cap Haitien Airport, there is now inexpensive jet service to Northern Haiti from Miami. Our staff (click any image to enlarge):
Dr. Mesadieu became an excellent vasectomist during the November 2014 Mission, and improved his skills even further during this mission. Please see our November 2014 Mission page. Elisabeth joined NSVI again through the Cap Haitien Health Network. Our two Guest Vasectomists were Drs. Henchy (all the way from England) and Fisher (from North Carolina).
We served the same three locations as in November 2014: the Uls Sante Clinic in Ft. Bourgeois, the town of Plaisance, and the Ft. St. Michel Health Center in Cap Haitien. We performed vasectomies on 55 men. Here is some geographic orientation:
NSVI has established a Domestic Program in Northern Haiti as we have done in the Philippines. The Haitian government has made family planning a national priority, and should be very receptive to the help offered by NSVI. This mission (1) provided more hands-on training for Dr. Mesadieu, (2) provided instruments and supplies for Dr. Mesadieu to perform vasectomies at Uls Sante between NSVI missions, and (3) set up the logistics for ongoing financial support of a Domestic Vasectomy Program in Haiti.
The schedule for the March 2015 mission was as follows:
- Saturday March 21: Dr. Lolagne arrived in Port-au-Prince to take care of some personal business and gather supplies for the mission.
- Monday March 23: Pastor Amos Myrtil arrived in Cap Haitien with banners, educational posters, and brochures, some of which he transfered to Dr. Mesadieu and Dr. St. Martin for posting and distribution in Ft. Bourgeois and Ft. St. Michel. He then traveled to Plaisance to (1) secure a clinic location and (2) begin a 3-day campaign to increase public awareness in Plaisance of NSVI”s arrival on March 26.
- Tuesday March 24: Dr. Lolagne traveled to from PAP to Cap, stopping in Plaisance to confer with Pastor Myrtil.
- Wednesday, March 25: Drs. Suarez, Stein, Henchy, and Fisher, along with Dr. Kaplan and Nurse Kaplan, arrived at CAP 12:08 PM on American Flt. 1632. The Team converted dollars to gourde, then went directly to Ft. St. Michel for Mission Day 1 where 2 operator pairs performed 11 vasectomies over 3 hours then spent the night at Hotel Roi Christophe.
- Thursday, March 26: The team traveled to Plaisance (about 2 hours) and performed 16 vasectomies then returned to the Hotel Roi Christophe.
- Friday March 27: The Team traveled to Ft. Bourgeois and performed 17 vVasectomies in in the morning, then transferred to Hopital Ft. St. Michel and performed another 11 vasectomies in the afternoon before retiring again to the Hotel Roi Christophe.
- Saturday, March 28: After a leisurely breakfast the hotel and an exchange of photos and data, the mission was adjourned and some returned home via Miami on American Flt 1632 at 1:40 PM.
The cost of each NSVI vasectomy in Haiti is about $45. This includes compensation of:
- patients for lost-income and transportation ($11),
- community facilitators/motivators (former vasectomy patients who educate men in the community; $9),
- our counselor/coordinator, who overseas informed consent and records ($4.50),
- the Haitian vasectomists ($11),
- our OR nurse/equipment person ($4.50) and
- facility fees ($4.50).
Complementary transportation is usually provided by the Department of Health. Until NSVI is blessed with a generous grant, the only way to meet this budget is to ask each guest vasectomist for a donation of $1500, paid to NSVI as a donation “FBO Haiti Mission”. Mission participants from outside Haiti also purchase their own air tickets, bring their own supplies, and pay for their own accommodations.
For those of you who have never been to Haiti, an NSVI mission would be an experience that you will NEVER forget. While you are always free to arrange your own mission, and we can provide advice, NSVI cannot accept more than 2 “guest” vasectomists due to limitations in transport and the size of our facilities. Anyone with questions can e-mail Doug Stein at steinmail@vasweb.com or call him at 813-390-3032 (cell) or 813-972-1365 (office).
Even if you cannot join us, feel free to steer a few of your philanthropic dollars toward NSVI. You probably already give to other organizations with top-heavy administrations who are strangers to you. What better gesture than to donate $45 to help a poor Haitian man (1) reduce his overhead, (2) reduce the risk to his partner of another unintended pregnancy, (3) more successfully nurture fewer children, and (4) reduce overcrowding in a small country whose environment has already been stripped of many resources by a population of over 10,000,000.